So, remember that ALS ice bucket challenge thing?

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Jorick

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Glad to see that all those people that simply did the challenge without actually donating didn't actually hurt anything in the long run.
 
That's the cool part of it, even if you were a slacker, you were still advertising the charity and thus it got a ton more exposure than it would have otherwise. O__O

I wish it worked for everything. t____t
 
Glad to see that all those people that simply did the challenge without actually donating didn't actually hurt anything in the long run.
Aye. Even if not everyone was donating, they were still spreading the word, thus paving the way for more people to hear about the challenge and then decide to donate. Odds are, a lot of the people who were tagged/encouraged by non-donators did actually donate.

Even when the ice bucket challenge was at its prime, I remember hearing that ALS was receiving a lot of money from it as well as a lot more awareness, too. Pretty much everyone knew what the ice bucket challenge was, and, even if not everyone was donating, that's still better than so many people not even knowing what ALS is, since lots of people only first heard of ALS because of the challenge. Spreading awareness without giving money isn't as good as doing both, but it's still better than doing neither.

So really, the people who did the challenge without donating really weren't hurting anything at all, the way I see it. They were just helping less than they could have, but still helping nonetheless.
 
I would disagree with that, though not entirely. The harm, in my opinion, comes from the continued lack of knowledge that would be perpetuated by going along with the latest popular thing without trying to gain insight. You're right though, that overall it would only benefit in some way.

I'd expand further, but this isn't a debate thread.
 
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My main issue I had with ALS wasn't so much slacktivism, but rather the "I'll follow the band wagon without knowing what the wagon is" people and the "Do this or you're a monster" people.
Because I get the idea of advertising/spreading awareness, that much makes sense.

But I ran into a few people who literally just dumped the bucket and challenged people... making zero commentary about ALS.
Ok? You just dumped a bucket of ice cold water on your head, congrats. But you also completely missed the point of it.

That and I found often times when people did actually know what the challenge was they started using Guilt Tactics.
Note, this part I found mainly among my own family but the trend seemed to be that "If you're a Good person you will do this".
So if someone wasn't doing it, for any reason they were being guiltied with comments such as "Why don't you care?", "You should be willing to help people", "Don't let narcissism get in the way of helping".

And in all honesty, that mentality just served to drive me further away from the Ice Bucket Challenge. I don't like working with movements that rely on breaking people down in order to get support.

But regardless I am glad to see the movement did actually end up being successful enough to make a difference.
 
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